Original documentation by Susan Hanningan

SchoolPost is now the preferred method of communication with parents and, potentially, groups of pupils.

SchoolPost is designed to facilitate:

• Group publications into a single notification for parents (Head’s Letter) - all SchoolPost content MUST be submitted by 5.00pm on Wednesday (for mailing on Friday).
• Targeted communications to a class, year, group of pupils, their parents or both.

SchoolPost is not to be used with:

• One-to-One communication, emails typically used in this case.
• Inter-class communication about a subject can also be done via MS Teams through preset groups (teachers).

Key changes:

• Messages on Firefly now redirect you to SchoolPost, to avoid confusion of where and how messages are sent.

Accessing SchoolPost:

SchoolPost can be accessed via Firefly, either clicking on Messages or via the Quick Links.

A user guide is available via the question mark symbol in the top right hand corner of the screen.

1. Logging in to SchoolPost https://millhill.schoolpost.co.uk 

• Firefly
• Staff Dashboard
• Quick Links, select SchoolPost (see below)

2. SchoolPost Menus

2.1 Main Menu

• Once you select SchoolPost, you will be taken to the following screen:

2.1.1 My mailbox

• All messages that you have sent / can view will show here.
• To view messages, select a month and then all messages sent that month will be visible (see example below)

2.1.2 My settings

• If you would like to adjust your settings for email notifications, including changing passwords, select my settings (See below)

2.2 Staff Area

Pressing on the “Staff Area” will allow you to prepare a communication

2.2.1 New Publication

Select “New Publication” to generate a communication

Example Publication – submitting a simple publication to the Lower Sixth

• Once you select new publication, you will see the following screen:

Date and time

• It will automatically default to custom date and time.

• If you want your publication to be sent on a particular date and time, you will need to pick the date and time to send the message.
• The Head’s Letter and other communications will be sent on Friday at 5.30pm. You will need

to select ‘Timeslot’ and select the correct date under MHS Head’s Letter – 17.30

Recipients

You can select a quick filter e.g. MHS Pupils and the number of pupils on roll (currently 890) and the number of contacts (1728 people with relationships to the 890 pupils) will be displayed. You should deselect the following as these people do not need to receive all communications:

• Other family member
• Grandmother
• Educational agent

Further Filtering

• You can amend the selection by clicking on Add groups/sets/filter – for example you could remove year groups

Group Selection

You can experiment with selecting groups and sets (as pupil details are updated on iSAMS), for example you can send emails to pupils or parents based on Academic House, Teaching Groups, SOSCS fixtures…

Composing the message:

It is important to use the following when composing messages as it will ensure consistency in communications to MHS parents:

-    Title: Add a title for the publication (e.g. Lower School Uniform Expectations - Name and Role

e.g Mr Jim Dickin, Deputy Head (Pastoral). Dates should be included when appropriate – eg Senior Hockey and Netball Dinner: Saturday 30 April - Mrs Charlotte Dickin, Head of PSHE

-    Body of the Message: Add your text to the body of the communication. Think about the language used and do not use abbreviations

o    Dear Parents and Guardians, – to be used when sending a general message to lots of people (eg whole year groups, whole school etc)

o    Dear Parental Salutation, – when sending a more personalised message to smaller numbers of people

o    Signature – letters should be signed off with Name, role in bold

o    Spelling – please check message for spelling errors. This includes the American spelling of some words eg use customise and not customize

-    Attachments: You can include an attachment where necessary - drag and drop to add an attachment (for text only use the text box; sometimes an attachment is needed eg a newsletter. You should only use a PDF version of the document).

-    Viewing the message: You can view the message by clicking “View email” or you can send a sample email to yourself by clicking on “Test email”, this will give you a feel of how the email/message will look like when it is sent. This won’t send an email to the selected group at that point.

-    Requesting Approval - Once your message has been completed, the message needs to be approved by one of the communication coordinators. Select an approver and click Request Approval. This is likely to be Tony, Jim, Sam, Susan. This will ensure sending high quality and validated emails to parents.

• Approving a publication: The approver will receive an email request to approve the publication. If they select Publish then the communication will be collated and sent-out in the scheduled timeslot, therefore it is crucial that you select the correct date and time to avoid publications being sent out too early/late.